1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to information handling systems, and more specifically, to providing real-time status of embedded controllers in the information handling systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes, thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems, e.g., computer, personal computer workstation, portable computer, computer server, print server, network router, network hub, network switch, storage area network disk array, RAID disk system and telecommunications switch.
Recent trends in information handling systems such as workstations, computer servers and associated storage disk arrays are being developed with embedded high-speed input/output (I/O) controllers, e.g., Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel controllers, and the like. Typically, these embedded controllers have light emitting diodes (LEDs) proximate their I/O connectors to indicate link/activity status of the high-speed connection thereto. These LEDs are usually the only indication of a specific controller's status and/or activities.
While static information from, e.g., plug and play, and power-on system testing (POST) may disclose the presence of embedded controllers in an information handling system, there is no way of determining remotely, e.g., software monitoring and display screens, the health and/or activities of these embedded controllers.
A prior technology, represented in U.S. Pat. No. 5,761,527, obtains PCI bus hard disk activity information by monitoring the PCI GNT signal. The advantage of this technology is that it can be adapted to both PCI add-on cards and embedded PCI devices. However, the PCI GNT signal does not represent an accurate indication of the activity on high-speed Ethernet or fibre channel (FC) networks because the Ethernet and FC controllers often buffer large blocks of data before going onto the PCI bus to request the host processor to process the data. Thus, PCI bus activity cannot properly represent either Ethernet or FC network activities. Other existing technologies may display the static characteristics of the controllers such as IP address, storage area network (SAN) connectivity, and the like.
Therefore, a problem exists, and a solution is required for monitoring real-time status and activity information of embedded controllers in information handling systems.